Former Lake County lieutenant announces candidacy for sheriff

LAKE COUNTY -- "We've currently got a huge mess and an embarrassment to law enforcement and Lake County occupying the office of sheriff," Brian Martin said outside of the Sheriff's office Sunday morning.

He announced to a crowd of roughly 50 people his campaign to run against current Lake County Sheriff Frank Rivero.

"We don't need another two years of the sheriff's antics," Martin said, and the audience embraced him with cheers.

Martin worked under Rivero as a lieutenant for the Lake County Sheriff's Office (LCSO) until he resigned in 2011 "because it became clear his intentions were not right," Martin said. "He asked me to do unethical things that went against what I believe is right."

This announcement comes less than a week after Lake County supervisors gave their vote of no confidence 5-0, and a group of citizens said they began collecting signatures for a petition to recall Rivero during a three hour Board of Supervisors (BOS) meeting.

"We gave him a chance because we wanted the department to succeed," Martin said during his speech. "We gave him two years to get it right, and two years is long enough."

Martin said he'd been thinking about running for sheriff for more than a year.

"The decision came after discussing it with my family," he said. "I know it will be hard on them, but someone has to make a sacrifice, and we are the people."

His goals, Martin said, are to repair and rebuild the LCSO.

"Repairing will be short term, but I know that rebuilding will take years, and I'm in it for the long haul."

A full account will be available Monday online and in Tuesday's Record-Bee.

Berenice Quirino is a staff reporter for Lake County Publishing. She can be reached at 263-5636, ext. 36 or at bereniceq@record-bee.com.